Mets Slam Their Way Over .500

The last time a New York Met hit a grand slam was when Angel Pagan accomplished the feat on August 1, 2009. That’s a 299 game drought. Well, the drought is over.

The Mets belted two grand slams, one by Jason Bay and the other from Carlos Beltran, in route to their 14-3 pounding of the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. The grand slams helped back Mets starter R.A. Dickey who put together another quality start. He went seven innings, giving up 10 hits and three runs while striking out six Tigers batters.

Dickey has given up three runs or less in seven of his past eight starts. After a slow start to the season, the knuckleballer is now 4-7 and has lowered his ERA to a respectable 3.77.

New York’s offense chased Tigers starter Rick Porcello from the game in the fourth inning. Daniel Schlereth took over for Porcello and was even worse as he gave up the two grand slams.

Everything seemed to work for the Mets last night. Starting pitching was on it’s game once again, and the offense came up big. Aside from the big homers by Bay and Beltran, the Mets saw catcher Josh Thole belt his first home run of the season. Thole now has is average up to .253 on the year.

Angel Pagan had a 3-for-3 night, scoring twice and driving in two runs. He also drew two walks, reaching base in all five of his at-bats. Speaking of reaching base, that’s all Mets shortstop Jose Reyes seems to do.

Reyes continued his All-Star and MVP caliber season by going 4-for-4 with three runs scored and one walk. Reyes’ average for the season is up to a National League leading .349. The shortstop ran out his 15 triple of the season. Just an amazing season for the free agent to be.

By winning five of their past six games and six of their last ten, the Mets are now over .500 for the first time since early April. Their record currently sits at 40-39 and they are 9.5 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East.

The Mets are just five games behind Wild Card leader, Atlanta Braves. Many would have never believed you if you said a Mets team without Johan Santana, Ike Davis, and David Wright would be having this success. This is a team that manager Terry Collins has playing hard every night and their confidence is showing.

The Mets hope to carry over the momentum from last night as they play 12 straight games now until the All-Star break. They play the Tigers two more times before returning home for a weekend series against the cross-town New York Yankees. After that, the Mets cross the country to play four with the Los Angeles Dodgers followed by three against the San Francisco Giants.